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The ancient Egyptians considered garlic a sacred plant. It was given daily to slaves who built pyramids. The Persians recommended garlic for better circulation. The Chinese used garlic as a remedy for exhaustion and diseases of the respiratory and digestive organs. The ancient Greeks also used garlic a lot. They called it a “stinking rose.” According to the Odyssey, the god Hermes recommended garlic to Odysseus against the evil eyes of the sorceress Kirke (who turned his friends into pigs). Immediately before the competition at the Olympic Games, ancient athletes regularly took one clove of garlic. At that time, doctors recommended garlic as a diuretic, anthelmintic, antidote for poisoning, for the treatment of asthma, jaundice and toothache.
In France (more precisely in Gascogna), children were introduced to this plant at their baptism. First, they would rub the baby’s tongue with a clove of garlic, and pour a few drops of Armagnac, believing that this would make the children more resistant to life’s adversities. It has been recorded that in the Antilles, roosters are prepared for combat by feeding them a mixture of grain and garlic. This perennial herbaceous plant most likely originates from Central Asia. To this day, it has remained on the menu of many peoples as a spice. Garlic contains essential sulfur oils, allicin, sulfur heteroside, mineral salts (calcium, sulfur, phosphorus, iron), nitrogenous substances, phytoncides, vitamins, aline and essential oil.
Official medicine has accepted garlic as a medicine in lowering high blood pressure and for treating diabetes. Folk medicine prescribes garlic numerous medicinal properties. Garlic is the most common general antibiotic and antiseptic. In the past, doctors, when visiting patients, put a mask soaked in a solution of the juice of this plant on their face. Garlic is a regulator of intestinal flora. It is recommended in case of dysentery and stomach cramps. It is recommended against all infections of the intestinal flora. It is useful in pain of the liver and endocrine glands (thyroid and adrenal). Garlic is effective in sciatica, dizziness and tinnitus. It regulates the percentage of blood glucose, so it is useful for diabetics and obese people prone to diabetes. Garlic is considered to be a preventive agent for cancerous diseases / tumors, especially the digestive organs.